No jail for builder with rifle outside courthouse

A property developer caught with a rifle outside the Four Courts after his business “went down the drain”, has escaped a jail sentence.

Widower Padraig Hennessy (aged 44), a father-of-three with an address at The Commons, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, had pleaded guilty to possessing a bolt-action .22 calibre rifle without a licence at Inn's Quay, in Dublin, on September 5 last.

At the Dublin District Court today Judge Hugh O'Donnell noted that the defendant had no prior criminal convictions and that the rifle was not loaded. “You could still kill someone by hitting them with it,” he said.

He made an order for the destruction of the rifle and imposed a 12-month probation bond on Hennessy.

The court had heard that passing defence forces personnel noticed Hennessy outside the Four Courts “sitting in a jeep with a rifle”. Gardaí were alerted and found Hennessy's vehicle unoccupied but the rifle still inside.

The defendant returned at which point he was arrested and brought to the Bridewell Garda station to be charged.

He had removed the bolt from the unloaded rifle before he travelled to Dublin, the court heard.

Defence solicitor Murrough O'Rourke told Judge O'Donnell that there was no bullets in the rifle.

He said that his client's wife had died a year previously. Hennessy had “not been given title to some property” and his construction business “went down the drain”.

Mr O'Rourke also submitted that Hennessy had co-operated with the Probation and Welfare Service.

He had a licence for the rifle previously but it had elapsed, the court had also heard.